THE PROBLEM WITH 3-0

So here’s how the 1st inning went for the Cubbies on Wednesday night. Felix Pie started the game by taking 3 straight balls from Kyle Davies. He then took strike one and fouled off the next pitch for strike 2. He was called out on strikes on pitch 6 of the at-bat, a pitch that I thought was ball 4.

DeRosa was the next hitter. He got ahead 1-0 on Davies, then hammered the 2nd pitch over the fence for a solo homerun.

Derrek Lee was next and got behind 0-2. Because he is awesome, he worked Davies back to a full count and drew a walk. Fabulous at-bat.

Aramis Ramirez strolled up to the dish. He took three straight pitches and had Davies 3-0. Floyd, Barrett and Jacque Jones were due up after Ramirez. Davies is a young pitcher who entered the game with a career ERA over 6. Just 23 years old and in quite a first inning bind, Aramis Ramirez let him off the hook. He swung at the next pitch and grounded into an inning-ending double play. Thankfully I had to turn off the TV at that point to assume my parental responsibilities. I was not happy, and as I am wont to say, that was so Cubs.

They had him and let him go. They could have made him throw many more pitches that inning and likely would have scored a few more runs. Atlanta would have been forced to go to its pen early which would have had an effect on not only Wednesday’s game, but Thursday’s too.

I’ll give you that Ramirez was swinging a hot bat. But there is a much bigger picture that he fails to see, even if he is given the green light by Piniella. I hate 3-0 swinging. 3-1 is just as good. And considering that Zambrano could have used a nice cushion it was even worse.

The Braves ended up getting 5 1/3 out of Davies. The Cubs ended up getting just the one run in the 1st. The Braves scored 4 in the bottom of the 1st. The Cubs did come back and then lost it all in the 7th inning, at least conventionally. But it was the 1st where they really blew it.

Posted by admin on Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 3:28 pm Filed under Cubs · Tagged with

http://courtjester.livejournal.com Mike O’Donnell

D-Lee is the man.
Great to see Hill on the hill last night. He is cruising through lineups. Nice also to see The Riot at the top. I’m glad Pinella is starting to make more room for him by doing things like moving Derosa to right and sitting Jones.

Let’s hope this starts a trend. It would be nice to see them take 12-15 in a row and never look back.